The Descendants of a Jewish Art Collector Are Suing the Stedelijk Museum Over a Kandinsky Work They Say Is Rightfully Theirs

The descendants of a Jewish art collector have filed a lawsuit
seeking the return of Wassily Kandinsky’s Painting with Houses (Bild mit
Häusern) (1909) from the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

The city-owned museum purchased the painting at auction in
Amsterdam in October 1940. The work found its way to the block
under mysterious circumstances, leading the heirs to believe that
the sale was involuntarily made under duress from occupying Nazi
forces.

In 2018, the Netherlands’ Advisory Committee on the Assessment
of Restitution Applications investigated the case and found that
the Stedelijk was not obligated to return the painting.

The new lawsuit disputes that opinion, which is binding.

“It has recently become clear that the restitution committee was
biased, as four of the seven members have close professional and
personal ties with the Stedelijk Museum,” according to a written
statement from the Mondex Corporation, which is representing the
claimants.

The lawsuit claims that the committee’s recommendation violates
the restitution guidelines set forth by the country’s Ekkart Committee, which
holds “that sales of works of art by Jewish private persons in the
Netherlands from 10 May 1940 onwards be treated as forced sales,
unless there is express evidence to the contrary.”

The restitution committee admitted that it remains unclear under
what exact circumstances the piece was brought to auction. The
recommendation argued that there was no proof that the sale was
involuntary, stating: “at this stage of the occupation, no
anti-Jewish measures had come into force that were targeted at the
confiscation of Jewish possessions.”

The committee also noted that there was never any attempt to
reclaim the work after the war.

The work’s provenance complicates the matter. Emanuel
Lewenstein purchased the painting in 1923 from art dealer Paul
Citroen. Upon Lewenstein’s death, it passed to his widow, Hedwig.
The couple had two children, Robert and Wilhelmine, who
inherited it upon their mother’s death in 1937.

In her will, Hedwig instructed that her children draw lots to
divide her property. But that does not appear ever to have
happened.

Because it remains unclear how the property was ultimately
divided, three Lewenstein family members—a descendant of
Wilhelmine, a descendant of Robert, and a descendant of Robert’s
ex-wife, Irma Klein, whom he divorced before the 1940 sale—are
jointly seeking the painting’s return.

According to the restitution committee, the work was likely sold
in 1940 by Klein, although that claim has not been proven. The
picture sold for 160 guilders (which equates to around €1,400
today)—a sum the current claimants say was a fraction of its
value.

As of press time, neither the museum nor the restitution
committee had responded to inquiries from Artnet News.

“The Stedelijk Museum is wrongly hiding behind the opinion of
the restitution committee,” the Mondex Corporation says in its
statement. “The Lewenstein heirs fail to understand why the
Stedelijk Museum retains looted art and chooses to continue to
retain it.”

The post The Descendants of a Jewish Art Collector Are Suing
the Stedelijk Museum Over a Kandinsky Work They Say Is Rightfully
Theirs appeared first on artnet News.